Occupy SMA

Incidencia 10

By Peter Weisberg

These past several weeks have proven to be particularly disturbing in the wake of one crisis after another. Between climate catastrophes, earthquakes, (the glaring inequities in how these disasters are addressed), mass shootings, government policies that lead to genocide and justice inequities around the globe, and a list of grievances that grows on a daily basis, it would be natural to seek a place where we could hide our sensibilities in the sand. But in my opinion, this is the exact time to take a firm stand for our core beliefs. It’s a time to come together with a plan, a human values platform that represents who we are as individuals and what we aspire to as members of the global community.

With its inaugural gathering in early 2017, the People’s Congress of Resistance was formed to act as a diverse coalition of grassroots organizations in resistance to both of the dominant and inept US political parties. In the introductory paragraphs, the People’s Congress of Resistance Manifesto explains, “Without a revolutionary vision, change will not take a revolutionary direction. Resistance will remain rudderless; an exercise in activism for its own sake, or it will be co-opted into a vessel for the political elites. A vision for social, economic, and political revolution is necessary. We need to know where we want to go. Our vision ties our actions to our goal by showing us what we are mobilizing for. It guides us in coordinating our strategies and tactics. It helps us build collective strength. Our vision tells us how we can win and that we will win.” A movement platform is the crystallization of that vision.

For us, the process of building a platform can act to galvanize the ideas and values that are most important to the group, prioritize issues, and create a pathway on which to build a social movement—and in that process, build collective cohesion and solidarity. The process can embody the participatory model the group desires for society as a whole.

At OWSSMA this week, we will discuss political platforms from several organizations: Justice Democrats, Democratic Socialists, Leap Manifesto, and Mexico’s Morena Party. As individuals within a group, we’ll examine these documents to see where they overlap with each other and where they coincide with our own priorities and goals. As we move through this process, we might decide to draw up our own summary manifesto to serve as a flexible template toward achieving our own goals both as individuals and as a collective.